Enkayaar, Bollywood Trade News Network

When she came on the stage to grace the occasion of selection of Voice of India, the nightingale of India Lata Mangeshkar, and before her, when Madhuri Dixit also came on the stage, they all must have been wondering how come the list of the finalists was an all male entry. This must have been the idea in the mind, as the female singers who were eliminated were also invited to do a tribute to various songs of Lata Mangeshkar and also those of Madhuri Dixit.

The position was redeemed to an extent when an award was conferred on one of the female singers as a special category honoring the female voice in the competition. Alka Yagnik made a special reference about the case when she told that there was an urgent need to promote a female voice, and to encourage the promotion a special award was being given.

Even in Zee TV's Sa Re Ga Ma Pa there was no female competitor in the final stages at all, nor was it to be found in the Indian Idol as well. This has been the trend indeed for quite a long time inspite of the fact that Lata Mangeshkar is the undoubted queen of melody and no male singer has been able to stand to her if her entire career is taken into totality. The female singers enter in big numbers at the time of entry level in nearly all the competitions, but as the competition warms up, they start getting eliminated at a faster pace than the male singers.

During the course of the programme of Amul Voice of India this year, as also when Alka Yagnik was judging the Indian Idol show last year she had been quite vocal about this issue, and had wondered whether this was reflective of the common attitude that the average Indian had towards the girls per se, and was not the belief of gender bias sort of getting reflected in the general voting pattern.

If one were also to compare this situation with the world music scene, or the programmes of this kind being telecast all over the world, one finds one or two new female voices making their debut on a regular basis. This however, does not seem to be happening at all in India. It indeed is a matter to ponder why the girls do not get the votes at all when it is the question of selecting their voice as a voice of the nation.

The same seems to find reflection in the dance based competitions as well. The glaring example of this was in JHALAK DIKHLA JA, where a Sudha Chandran got eliminated before a Mika though when one compares the dancing prowess between the two it would be like comparing chalk and cheese.

The inability of the female participants to reach the final stages could also be a reflection of the financial strength a woman enjoys to be able to exercise her choice in the matters related to entertainment. Probably, the clarion call that Alka Yagnik gave, would trigger some thought processes, and this kind of situation would not be seen in other programmes of this nature in future.